DISINFO: Crimea joined Russia as a result of a 2014 referendum held after Western-backed coup d’etat in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Crimea is no longer part of Ukraine since 2014. It joined Russia as a result of a 2014 referendum that Crimean residents chose to hold after the Western-backed coup d’etat in Ukraine removed from power a democratically-elected president.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative portraying the 2013-14 Ukrainian revolution as a coup d'etat that was supported and/or artificially orchestrated by the US and Europe. The article is also consistent with pro-Kremlin narratives about the illegal annexation of Crimea.
It is not true that a coup d'état supported by the US and Europe took place in Ukraine in 2014. Euromaidan was not a coup d'état but a spontaneous and peaceful popular uprising that involved every level of Ukrainian society in legitimate demonstrations against the policies of the then-president Viktor Yanukovych.
No international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea, not the UN, nor the EU.
The European Union does not recognise and continues to strongly condemn this violation of international law, which remains a challenge to the international security order. This position is based on the UN Charter, which clearly states that the territory of a State cannot be acquired by another State resulting from the threat or use of force, as well as on the Helsinki Final Act in which the signatories declared their intention to respect the inviolability of frontiers and territorial integrity. UNGA Resolution 68/262, which condemned Russia's illegal actions in Ukraine, was supported by 100 United Nations member states. Only 10 states opposed it.
On 21 June 2021, the EU renewed sanctions introduced in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation for a further year until 23 June 2022.
Read similar cases claiming that Following the results of the referendum, crimea - peacefully and legitimately - became part of Russia, that The coup d'état of Maidan caused a referendum that united crimea with Russia or that There was a coup in Kyiv in 2014.